Archive for July 17, 2006
THE STATE OF THE UNION IN 2006 - A Review of the Films ‘Loose Change’ & ‘Why We Fight’
July 17, 2006 by Bill Gould, Publisher.
It is the curious state of paradox that any American who gets off the couch and away from the news will find themselves in. As the government tries to button down the home front through ‘homeland security’ and ‘patriot acts’, and make the world, in general, safer through the use of global ’secret’ prisons, it is gratifying to see the free society continue to pop its head up by way of film and the mobile technology to produce it. It is also scary to see history march forward with you in the parade. As you watch these films you become acutely aware that indeed you are living history by being in the midst of ‘future predictions’ straight out of the Bible and Nostrodamus’ quatrains. But ‘how did we get here?’ asks the lyric from a Talking Heads’ song. Both the ‘how’ and the ‘why’ are covered in these two extraordinary documentary films. The answers are individually startling and disgusting, yet like a horrible train wreck, you can’t turn away because of its luridness.
The ‘how’ is covered by ‘Loose Change’. Unless you just got to the planet on last night’s flying saucer, you know the defining and ongoing event of the last fifty years was 9/11. Many people are still in a traumatic state from seeing the World Trade Centers Twin Towers topple down after a plane was flown into each tower on a bright and sunny day in the Big Apple. This event is the primary reason for the current plight of the world, the plight that makes the headlines anyway. But ‘what if’ what you saw was all staged. Staged, to get the reaction it got, from you and every other person on Earth since it was broadcast and published everywhere on the planet. Staged, produced like some emotionally manipulative movie, only with real people in the action. How would you do this?? And how would you prove this event was a fake??
Unlike the Roswell ‘flying saucer incident’ that was just flat out changed through denial the next day, or the ‘JFK’ assassination in which the government took our tax money and then produced the ‘magic bullet theory’ that 90f the taxpayers didn’t swallow, something a lot more sophisticated would have to be done this time around. The start of the hoax was laid out, in theory, by a general during Kennedy’s freshman time in office, as a way to bring about ‘a call to arms’ against Cuba. The conversion of Cuba to communism from the American supported dictatorship was a real sore spot to Washington during the Cold War. He laid out in detail, the hoax to perpetrate on the American people and Congress, and was promptly removed from office by JFK for his effort. It has long been whispered that if there was ever a mastermind behind the logistics of the Kennedy Assassination, it was the man who bore this grudge.
Meanwhile years went by and the idea that the Twin Towers could be a target surfaced in, of all places, FEMA. The passing of time also brought about sophistication in demolitions, especially controlled demolitions in cities where other structures are located nearby. Now we bring into the mix the ideology of the ‘neo-con’ and the successful experimental programs of the military R&D, mix well and add oil. Now beat -roll media- well. Voila!! So you say, just another conspiracy theory?!? Well this time the theorists are college professors trained in physics, gravity, Sir Isaac Newton, and some people with a journalist’s nose for spotting anomalies. And there are plenty of anomalies, like in the Kennedy Assassination. As in that case, it is the consistency of anomalies that points to ’something being rotten in Denmark.’ Goggle ‘loose change’ to watch and/or order this thought provoking documentary video.
So we have the ‘how’, what about the motive, and the ‘why’ of why would the government pull such a hoax on the world and its own people? The answer to this question is in the equally absorbing documentary ‘Why We Fight’, available commercially at many department and discount stores. This is a movie I personally tracked after its initial release to see if it would obtain wide distribution, it didn’t. That didn’t surprise me after reading the critics’ acclaimed reviews and the fact the film won the Sundance Film Festivals Grand Jury Award. The subject matter was too hot to be released onto the general public. The synopsis said it all to me when it remarked that the film was based on President Eisenhower’s Military Industrial Complex statement from his farewell speech at the end of his term in 1960, just before Kennedy took over. Remember that aforementioned general, he was part of the administration that was there when Ike was the ‘Prez.’
This ’statement’ thing got my attention. I’m old enough to remember Ike’s speech because, like the buttons said, we all liked ‘Ike’. I remember as a kid wondering what President Eisenhower was talking about when he talked of this ‘complex’ live on B&W TV. The term was a new term that he himself coined. Added to this mystery was a story I read approximately two weeks later about how the text of Ike’s Speech was going to be entombed in stone, on display at the U.N., sans the ‘military industrial complex’ comment. I wondered who(?) would have the authority to edit Ike’s Speech when he wasn’t even gone a month yet from office. So did the journalist who wrote the article in a main stream magazine.
An old Ad Council ad used to say, ‘the business of America Is Business.’ What does this mean?? It means that when Communism was at its peak, you could still travel throughout Moscow on your American Express card and never have a vulgar Ruble touch your hand. It means, like the British in their heyday, we import goods to sell from all over the world because we, as Americans, are all over the world. We are there as tourists, students, entertainers, sports figures, industry expats, and/or soldiers. Coupled with this global expansion of business is the existence of a standing army and military force able to secure for U.S. the unrestrained supply of oil, ‘black gold’, ‘Texas T’, that keeps the machine running smoothly and a few men, their families and business cronies extremely wealthy. To the military (’generals train to fight’), the political, and the industry, the excessively lucrative profession of armament through decentralized suppliers, add to this mix the ‘misplaced power’ of the ‘think tank’, which has no addressability to the taxpayer/voter and is subsidized by grants from the government through tax dollars. ‘Why We Fight’ tells you and shows you why we fight, how we got started and why we’re still fighting long after the cold war has been won.
Although there are a number of films that explore the anomalies of 9/11, such as the one about the flight school where three of the alleged 9/11 pilots got their airplane training, these two film, when taken together as bookends, provide a sound entry level into the current and upcoming world of Big Brother. They also stand as testimony that beneath the entire official ’spin’, a free society still exists, so far. To borrow a phrase that is in vogue right now, ‘So dark the con of Man.’ – PT ROTHSCHILD
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